Owen Wright by the evening, Padang, Indonesia

You know it’s that time of year when the Rip Curl Cup glues its eye to the Padang lineup, right? Contest directors for this event are some the pickiest ever, which is very good because it means heats won’t run in shit. This year, Owen Wright is in the mix, indulging his main sponsor and also kinda indulging himself – who can blame him for favouring Padang over Huntington? – by showing up to jam down the long left walls at one of Indo’s finest.

And swell has landed. The Rip Curl Cup will run, hopefully in, like, an hour. But before that, let us quickly look at a moment from last night: “The swell wasn’t big enough to run the main event, but a few sets came in before dark that were promising,” says the photographer, Nate Lawrence. “The direction of the swell is pretty west, so any sets that do show up are walled up pretty good.” You can call that real promising. Catch it here.